Yarn Along

The knitting pace is picking up.It's so nice to have hit a knitting rhythm again! I have taken six children to the dentist in the last 24 hours and Sarah visited the pediatrician--lots of waiting room knitting. Tomorrow, we have 5 orthodontist appointments and then Friday will bring some labwork. I think this sweater might get as finished as possible without a trip to see Ginny this week.

It's been nice to knit in waiting rooms and talk with recptionists about knitting. One of the ladies behind the desk at the dentist told me all about how her mother taught her to knit when she was little. She said she hadn't knit in years. Then, she went on to remember how it's a wonderful stress-buster. Pretty sure there's a visit to a yarn store in her near future:-).

I'm reading Young and in Love: Challenging the Unnecessary Delay of Marriage. I did receive a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a review and I'm breaking radio silence this week because that review is overdue (and because I missed talking with y'all  about knitting.). The topic of early marriage is one that fascinates me. By today's standards, I married young. Since one of my children is already older than I was when I married (he's actually older than I was when he was born), it's a topic whose time has come around again. I haven't finished the book, but there is one critical point that absolutely rings true with me: young people today have a tendency to extend the immaturity of their teen years well into their twenties and delaying marriage is part and parcel of that selfish behavior. Often, delaying marriage is not about delaying gratification and waiting until one is mature and capable of establishing a household; it is instead, about choosing to behave as if they were the center of a universe that exists solely for their pleasure. 

Ted Cunningham, the author, validates young love. He doesn't dismiss the idea that there are young people who know that they have found the spouse God intends and he encourages them to get married and begin the life of love God wants for them. He gives a young couple tools for evaluating the relationship and for forging a solid bond. It's a worthwhile read and it is certainly food for thought and for discussion. If God is trying to knit a couple together, society shouldn't tangle it all up. Every relationship is unique. When I consider my own relatively young marriage, I'm always astonished. How did we know? How did we do that? Where did we get that sure confidence and exuberant joy? It was the grace of God. Only the grace of God. And 25 years after making that decision, it's still the grace of God that fuels the union. No matter how many books are written or how many scholars and pastors weigh in, no matter how many demographic studies are done, the most important thing I want my children to consider God's will for this most important decision. 

Go visit Ginny for more reading and knitting inspiration.

Yarn Along: Hope Shining

There is something about these days of August that fill my heart with hope. The new school term nears and with it comes the promise of the fulfillment of all the lofty goals I can dream. I was definitely off my knitting rhythm for a few weeks, there. It just felt tedious and tense. Thankfully, I found a joyful rhythm again at Mint Springs Lake while my little girls, in sandy bathing suits, climbed the ladders and slid down the slide again and again and again. Back and forth I knitted across the body of this sweater, while up and down they played. Rhythm. It's a good thing.

And environment. A prepared environment sings hope to me as well. I know it's time to leave the sewing studio for a few hours a day or so and begin to put the right books in the baskets, spruce up the art supplies, re-think the spaces. I was delighted to receive Playful Learning:Develop Your Child's Sense of Joy and Wonder in the mail while I was away last weekend. I had forgotten that I'd pre-ordered it ages ago, when I ordered Amanda Soule's new book. I put The Rhythm of the Family aside for now and dug into Playful Learning yesterday as I forced myself to be still and rid my body of a nasty infection. 

I've been reading early childhood education books for thirty years or so. It takes a serious gust to qualify as a breath of fresh air. This is it. This book artfully, masterfully, and very clearly presents a lovely marriage of the theories of Maria Montessori, Loris Malaguzzi, and Howard Gardner. What you get is an accesible and immediately implementable roadmap to the best of Montessori, Reggio Emelia, and Harvard Project Zero. It's absolutely not a theory book though--it's all very practical. This a visually inspiring book full of hands-on reading, science, and social activities for children from three or four to about eight or nine. There is just enough child development background to give underlying  meaning to the activities. There are reproducibles to make it come to life easily. And there are very thoughtful, helpful, and beautiful pictures to inspire the viusal among us. This book has me happily reorganizing and purposefully planning to capture  the joyful moments of  my children's natural inquisitiveness and wonder right along with them. I'm sitting surrounded by a few beautiful things, drawing spaces and sketching simple plans. All good.

I can feel it coming. The next few days are going to be fifteen degrees cooler. The baskets of art supplies and books and science tools will be refreshed and replenished. The knitting needles will click merrily towards the completion of fall cardigans. Hope shines a sunny yellow in the learning space that is my sunroom.

Please visit Ginny for more reading and knitting inspiration. (Hey, I visited with Ginny in person last week. And neither of us knitted. Can you imagine? That baby sure is sweet, though.  Plans must be made for a knitting visit soon.)

Yarn Along: Slow Going

It's gray outside this morning as I write to you. I have half a dozen indoor things on my list, but I'm wrestling with the idea that the garden needs a good weeding and it's finally cool enough to do it. What to do?

My knitting has slowed to a snail's pace. I'm not sure why. I made a pretty major mistake and didn't discover it until 8 rows later. Knowing that with double strands and lots of increases and decreases between me and the error 8 rows back there was a good chance I'd irrevocably mess it all up, I called a knitting friend and we --ahem-- did the math. I've done more math in the last six months than in the last 26 years. The jury is still out on whether our rescue was successful, but I very much enjoyed the leisurely late evening conversation. I need to get past the sleeve divide and try it on Katie and see whether it's too bulky through the yoke. It's hard to tell on these cables.

It's been a lovely summer of slow stitching in both yarn and thread. I haven't minded the heat at all and rather embraced the opportunity it has granted to stay inside and feather my nest a bit. I have oh-so-many thoughts on hearth and home percolating around in my brain! I know that as the days cool the pace will quicken. There will be more knitting and less sewing because the knitting can go with me hither and yon to some of the most beautiful soccer parks in the country. It will be very pleasant company while I wait for games to begin and training sessions to finish. Right now, I'm happily humming at home, very much enjoying the slow.

In the comments section of this post, I mentioned one of my all-time favorite books, The Hurried Child. I read this book in college and, together with Miseducation, by the same author,  it probably had the greatest influence on my thoughts about childhood of any book at the time. And I read a whole lot of child development books! It was a new book then, in its first printing. The 25th Anniversary Edition brings it into a new century and really, when I stop to consider it, it is astonishing how much more the culture works to hurry children than it did just 25 years ago. (Incidentally, neither book is a homeschooling book.) Back then, I thought Dr. Elkind had a very solid argument and I set about to find educational philosophies that preserved the dew of childhood long enough to ensure that faithful souls and creative spirits were well watered. Now, the challenges are considerably more formidable. In a lovely twist of poetry, I re-read my cherished first edition paperback of  Miseducation last week, while I read the 25th Anniversary Edition of the Hurried Child on Kindle. The times are a-changing so very quickly. We simply must keep up--and slow down. Childhood itself is at stake.

Go visit Ginny for more knitting and reading yarns.

Stitch by Stitch: Pocket Mat with Bias-Bound Edges

I was definitely buoyed by the success of our first project, as I moved on to the second. I hadn't even planned to sew that afternoon--it just sort of happened. And my children absolutely were a cheering section.

The project in the book is a picnic placemat with bias bound edges. After making 12 napkins so that we'd have enough for our regular dinner table crew, I didn't much think I was going to make personal picnic placemats. Just not something we need around here. We did, however need a pocketed storage pouch for our knitting needles, a way to easily sort by size and keep them tidy. So, I set about making one of those, knowing that we actually need two and Mary Beth would be right behind me to make another.

The book calls for handmade bias binding. I picked up some packaged binding at the fabric store. I'm really glad I did. I look forward to making yards and yards of binding tape one day. Just not this day.

The book also calls for two fat quarters of the same print. I opted to use coordinating prints. This fabric just makes me happy:-). 
 
 

And the new pockets make my knitting needles happy. (So perhaps now they don't begrudge the sewing machine its share of my crafing time.) Fabric from the Heather Bailey Nicey Jane collection.

Mary Beth made a pocket mat for the double pointed needles. After mine was finished, we recognized the need for a pocket for the needle sizing gauge, so hers has that included. It also would  have been cute to embroider the needle size for each pouch right onto the fabric.

Mary Beth chose Summer Garden by Lily Ashbury for Moda.

Nick REALLY wanted to sew, but had no need for a needle case or a picnic placemat. We took the encouragement from Stitch by Stitch and varied the size to make a Kindle case. He chose the fabric himself and we sandwiched leftover batting from Katie's quilt between the layers.

He was pleased as Punch!

Skills we learned:

identifying right side and wrong side

applying bias tape

binding edges

inserting ribbon

stitching in the ditch

channel stitching

combining fabrics

Next up: Reversible Bags

See our Fancy Napkins here.

Yarn Along: Bright, Bright Sunshiny Day

Great news! It's only going to be 90 degrees today and it's only going to feel like 90 degrees today. Excellent. I have been knitting sunshine lately. I was gifted some sock yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in a lovely shade of  Chamois. Mary Beth chose the color with a pair of legwarmers in mind. When the yarn came, she decided that she really, really wants those knit from Amy Butler Belle Organic Aran in poppy, the yarn I used for Sarah's summer sweater. So, I tucked the yarn into a basket in the studio and figured we'd find a use for it. 

I had planned to make the girls Tiny Tea Leaves cardigans from Rowan Calmer, but I just couldn't get gauge. On a whim, I tried the sock yarn, held doubled and totally fell in love. I love the color. I love the stitch definition. And I really, really love the ruching. Oh, this pattern has wooed me! It's a good thing, too, because if I'd read the pattern to the end and known that I'm going to have to, "Pick up 2 stitches for every 3 rows. Knit 3 rows" I might have never started. Now, I'm just going to keep falling in love and worry about the big finish later.

In honor of the abundant sunshine and our beautifully blooming sunflowers, I went to pull out the sunflower books for today. On my way to finding them, I was distracted by our Thoreau picture books. I'm in a Thoreau mood. Indeed, I think it's a Thoreau kind of day.

Walking with Henry: 

A fictionalized account of Thoreau for older children. The text is based on Thoreau's writings and the art is light-filled and majestic and absolutely fitting for the message

Henry Hikes to Fitchburg:

Henry Builds a Cabin:

These two are darling picture books for the younger set. Henry is a charming bear who lives Thoreau's life in the wilderness, collecting flowers, gathering blackberries, taking leisurely strolls. He builds his own house and he even nods to his neighbors, Emerson and Hawthorne.

Henry David's House:

In this beautiful book, the life of simplicity on Walden Pond is conveyed with Thoreau's own words and exquisite water color and oil paintings. In this one, he borrows an axe from his neighbor, Bronson Alcott. These books are such good food for thought and talk. I'm in the mood for one of those conversations today and I know just the children with which to have it.

I hope your day is all yellow and sunshiney, too!

Do go visit Ginny for more summer knitting and reading inspiration.